Wedding Time.

Whenever I would talk to someone who had been to India about coming, they would tell me to go to an Indian wedding if I had a chance. With the end of the semester nearing, I was worried I wouldn't be able to go to one. Thankfully, everyone in our study abroad got invited to a wedding last weekend, and it definitely lived up to all the hype. I have tried to explain the experience to people, but others have found a much better way to explain it. Melody said it was: 60% Hollywood A-list party, 20% state fair, 20% carnival. It's pretty accurate. The picture below shows the degrees of separation between us and the groom; also drawn by Melody. It is also described in the great video that Brigitte made. Which is accurate to the whole experience.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNChtD_BuVY

I'm obviously getting much more lazy about these blog posts. T-minus 2 1/2 weeks left in India.

Don't be mad!

Things have been crazy since the end of the Commonwealth Games and our return to school.
Updates!
1. The trip to Sikkim was incredible. I had forgotten how much I missed the mountains, and the Himalayas are beyond incredible. The first part of the week we stayed on a farm and hiked around, visited monasteries, and enjoyed nature. For the latter half of the week we stayed at a orchid nursery, and the owner was kind enough to take us around to some different Buddhist monasteries and explain different aspects of them. Here are some pictures :)





The second week of the games a smaller group of us went down to the Southern state of Kerala. We stayed in a town called Varkala right on the cliff right next to the beach, swam, and laid in the sun. We saw some incredibly sunsets, one of which was from a beach that we ate dinner on. And we celebrated Harold's 21st birthday! After three or so days we went up north to Allepy to do a backwaters tour. A really sweet man took Brigitte and I around on a canoe to the backwaters of the city. It's incredibly to see how much people rely and live their lives on the river. He took us to his sisters house for lunch and we had this really great meal off a banana leaf. It was lovely. That evening we were walking around trying to find a place to eat, and we stumbled upon a
a Hindu temple with a ton of people having a festival for Krishna. There were 9 elephants there, and a ton of shrines and people. And loud music. The next day we went up to Cochin, where our flight was from. There we saw Chinese fishing nets in action. We didn't seem them catch many fish, but it was interesting. I guess the other group got to help out!















So we came back and tried to get back into the groove of things. I heard that the games went pretty well, India got the second most medals. The city seems to be returning back to normal. The weekend after we got back, four of us went to Jaipur. We saw the City Palace, the Hawa Mahal, the Jantar Mantar, and the Ameber Fort. And we rode some elephants! That was really interesting. It was a neat city. Hot, and crowded. Desert-y. This is the view from on top of the Hawa Mahal, which was a womans palace. The white thing poking up is part of the Jantar Mantar which has a bunch of old, accurate, astronomical tools.



The weekend after that is Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Andrew's host family invited us over for the festivities, and it was a lot of fun! We ate delicious food, played games, did the ceremonial lighting of candles, walked around the neighborhood to look at all the lights (it's like Christmas!), set off unpredictable fireworks, did puja, and just enjoyed ourselves and each others company. It was really nice to be around a family again. They are a joy.
(the haze in the first picture is from all the firecrackers!)




So that's my update for now. Sorry there weren't a bunch of details. It's been a lot of travelling, and I'm glad to be staying in Delhi for a while. Only one more out of town trip left-Varanasi!

Ps. sorry Cassie, no more monkeys yet.

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games start here in Delhi tonight. There are pretty mixed feelings about the whole thing. Hopefully it will bring a lot of people to Delhi, and it will be good for the local economy. There has been a lot of bad media internationally, as well as locally. In my, and what seems to be many other peoples, opinion Delhi is not quite ready for the games. There have been a lot of problems with building and getting everything ready. It seems to be making Delhi sad. Things finally seem to be coming together in some way, and I hope things go well.

Due to all the craziness that will be happening, we are getting out of town. All schools in Delhi are cancelled for two weeks, us included. This week we will be in Sikkim (NE India) working on a farm, and later staying at an orchid nursery. Both of which will be nice. It will be so good to be in the mountains and out of the city. Apparently there is a lot of Nepalese/Tibetan culture and influence, which will be interesting.




Next week, a smaller group of us are going to Kerala in the far south of India. We will just be seeing the town, playing in the ocean, and doing as much nature-y stuff as we can before coming back to Delhi. Internet will be minimal, if at all, so I won't update for a while. Have a good couple weeks!

Tughlakabad

Yesterday, Lauren and I went to Tughlakabad Fort. The Cities of Delhi class went on a field trip, but it was during my month long marathon of sickness and I couldn't go with them. So Lauren and I decided to head over on Monday when we had use of an IES taxi, and Lauren was my tour guide. The fort is pretty incredible, and was built in only two years time. Unfortunately, it was abandoned rather quickly. Maybe due to the curse Nizamuddin put on him. Who knows. Oh, Sufi saints. Anyways, here are some pictures from that excursion. Sorry I haven't been writing much, it's midterms. Blah. Enjoy!


Scattered ruins.


Water buffalo. :)

Khajuraho. And lots and lots of travel time.

On Friday morning, bright and early at 5:30, Lauren, Karissa, Maya and I left Delhi to catch our train for the weekend. The train took us to Jahansi which took a little over four hours. Then another four hours in a taxi to actually get to Kuajuraho. Same on the way back. So 16 hours of travel, and about 12 hours of time spent awake actually in Khajuraho. Our time there was spent mostly visiting the three main temple sites. The temples are Jain, and are known around the world for both their intricate designs, as well as erotic images. I'm just going to post pictures for this one.















The pictures are kind of a mess. Blogs are hard, and technology is confusing. Sorry! Enjoy.

Shahjahanabad

On Friday, our Cities of Delhi class took a field trip to Shahjahanabad. Aka. Old Delhi. Shahjahanabad was it's original name given by the Mughal Shah Jahan. Go figure. This is the third time I have been there this semester, each being a unique experience. The first time we were on our own doing touristy stuff. The second time Andrew's family took us around to different shops, and this time we got see things left from the Mughals, and a more residential area. Every time I go back to Old Delhi, I enjoy it more.



Once we all met up, our teacher led us through this narrow passage, which is apparently not uncommon in Old Delhi. When we walked down it, there was probably less than six inches of space on either side of our shoulders.
That alley took us to a stand that sold delicious fresh Indian breakfast food (aloo puri which a potato dish with puffed bread, and jalebi which is basically fried dough in syrup.) It was all served in bowls made out of banana leaves, and when we were done we just put them in a bin under the stand for cows to eat later.



After breakfast, we went to the haveli of a nice older man our teacher knew. Haveli's are large, multi-level houses with a courtyards. His home was just a section of what is believed to be the original Mughal haveli. They are often even further broken down, with individual families living in each room. He showed us around and we went to the roof to try and fly kites. But alas, no wind. It's pretty incredible how much of peoples lives can be lived on a roof.



Our last stop, my favorite stop, was to a spice market. Blocks of delicious smelling spices. Spices, nuts, dried fruits, all set up in stands along the street. We went up the stairs of main building on the block to one of the most incredible roofs I've seen. We could see the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid off in the distance, and it seemed like the roofs went on forever. People were drying food and their clothes, and stored their pet pigeons. It was pretty incredible.

Yoga Adventure #2

On Monday, Lauren and I decided to go find some cool things in Delhi. We got on the but at the station near our school like we normally do. Because it is a station, and the last stop, everyone gets off so we always get a seat. We decided to sit in the last row because there is a door right in front of it so the breeze is nice.
(pictured to left is what the buses we normally take look like) How Delhi buses work is, you get on, tell the conductor where your stop is, and pay the amount that corresponds with the stop. The conductor came up to us, but before making us pay, he made us move to the front. Because "he's the conductor, and he says we need to sit up front." Aka because we were women. It is challenging to adjust to a culture and society where the womens role is much different than I am used to. I'm still not sure how to be a part of it all.
Anyways, our goal was go to go Shahpur Jat, which we believed to be a park. We found the general neighborhood, but kept getting pointed in a circle when we asked people where it was. There was no park in any of the areas we were pointed. But, we found this really cool handicraft store that had a lot of cool traditional Indian crafts. So success. And we found a small green block with pigs in it. So that's always nice.
We then hopped a bus back towards our house to visit a yoga studio we were interested in. We just picked a bus that was going in the right direction because we didn't know what number we needed. At this point, it was raining quite hard. Luckily, we remembered our umbrellas, which is not always the case. So we saw the studio across the road, but decided to stay on the bus until the next stop so we didn't have to cross the busy intersection in the rain with a bunch of cars/rickshaws/motorcycles/buses. Unfortunately, the bus turned. And went quite a ways down the road. Which wouldn't have been a big deal if it wasn't pouring raining and lightning. So we waded through the rivers that were streets were becoming. By the end, my pants were super wet. We were afraid of being electrocuted, so we found a rickshaw that gave us a decently fair price headed home. By the time we got back the rain had mostly stopped. Oh well! Although we were all soggy, it was a good time. :)